But we retain three Injins in our county—West Injin, East Injin and Big Injin. They are creeks only and not Creeks of the Indian Tribe.
CENTENNIAL ORATION
DELIVERED JULY 4, 1876 AT NEVADA, IOWA, BY COL. JOHN SCOTT BEING AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF STORY COUNTY, PREPARED IN PURSUANCE OF THE PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT, AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE.
On the thirteenth day of May, 1673, Marquette and Joliet, two French missionaries, set out from their mission, St. Ignatius, in the Huron Wilderness, on the daring enterprise of exploring the country west of the Great Lakes. They came by way of Green Bay, ascended the Fox river of Wisconsin, were shown by the Indians the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers and descending the latter they reached the Mississippi, and were the first white men to look uwhat is now the State of Iowa. About ten years thereafter, La Salle, also a Frenchman, descended the Mississippi, and took possession of the country in the name of the King of France. He named the country Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV, his King. This included the whole valley of the Mississippi, from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains.
On the third day of November, 1762, a secret treaty was signed between France and Spain, by which the latter acquired that part of Louisiana which lies west of the Mississippi, and that part on the east of the great river came into the possession of the English, This river continued to be the western boundary of the English possessions in America until by the treaty of peace which acknowledged our Independence in 1783, it became a boundary of the United States. Thus, we see, that in 1776, one hundred years ago, the land we possess was a part of the Spanish Dominion.
On the twenty-first day of March, 1801. the treaty of Madrid was signed, which transferred Louisiana to France ; and on the thirtieth day of April, 1803, it was deeded to the United States for the sum of fifteen millions of dollars, thus extending our territory to the Gulf and to the Pacific Ocean.
During this period of one hundred and thirty years, and for thirty years thereafter, this beautiful land was the home or hunting grounds of roving Indians, and the scene of many a bloody battle between contending tribes. The first occupancy by the whites seems to have been that of Julien Dubuque, with a party of lead miners, who settled for mining purposes in 1788 on the site of the city that bears his name, where he continued until his death in 1810. There were also locations taken early iii this century at Montrose, and opposite to Prairie du Chien, and Indian traders fixed themselves at various points. Fort Madison was occupied by some troops about this time.